


Seasons Came and Changed the Time

by Bruteaous



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-16
Packaged: 2018-01-15 06:27:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1294816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bruteaous/pseuds/Bruteaous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. A short story on the lives of the teenage denizens of Storybrooke, Maine and what their lives might be like growing up in a town of cloistered fairy tale characters. Princesses Jasmine (Jade Ali-Kumar), Rapunzel (Hana Blumenthal) are all in attendance and dealing with teenage life and hormones. A Sleeping Warrior fanfic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bang, Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down

**Seasons Came and Changed the Time**

**One: Bang, Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down**

 

It was “meat” surprise day at lunch for the second time in one week. Apparently, whoever ordered the food for Storybrooke High weren’t too keen on variety. Mayor Mills had given many a speech on the importance of education for the town’s children at City Hall’s weekly meetings, but apparently nothing of note was said about the nutritional value of the school lunches.

 

Aurora grimaced as she pushed the scoop of vegetable medley across the plastic bed of the tray  with her fork and further from the questionable gelatinous mash that was apparently meat based in origin but which she was sure she would never feel sure enough to eat.

 

“I just…I thought it meant something to him, you know?” the small blonde across from her simpered like a puppy that had just been kicked.

 

“I wouldn’t worry, Faleen. Paul Langton is a dick. He’ll get what’s coming to him sooner or later, I promise you.” Jade growled, the words striking Aurora almost like a vow in their sincerity.

 

Aurora blinked as if coming out of a haze.

 

Slowly, she took in the cafeteria and the hustle and bustle of students around her as if it was the first time she’d seen it in a while. She’d become so lost in her own musings on how unappetizing her own meal was that she’d completely zoned out of the conversation her friends were having. Faleen Mann—usually blonde and bouncy Faleen—looked utterly miserable as she leaned her chin into her hands and blinked back recent tears. Next to her sat Jade, a slightly darker beauty who had her arm slung around Faleen’s shoulders in a consoling manner. And on Faleen’s other side, sat a quietly considering Hana Blumenthal. Closest to Aurora sat Hua Mulan, who was also in another one of her characteristically brooding moods.

 

“Karma’s a bitch,” Hana volunteered with a shrug. Her voice was rusty from imposed silence and despite her attempt to smile, the girl’s hazel eyes always held an underlying reflection of sadness.

 

Hana was beautiful and kind and a wonderful friend, but her Aunt Alexandrine kept her locked up in her attic room off of school hours, so afraid she was that Hana would make a run for it at the first chance she got. So Hana always seemed out of the practice of conversing because aside from other students at school and the family dog, Perdita, she had never been allowed any proper companions. It was a shame really, Aurora thought. Of course, she had always had her younger brother, Julius, and sister, Amalie, for company so Aurora had never really been forced to wonder what a life in seclusion would be like, at least until she had met Hana.

 

Then again Aurora had to have led a pretty sheltered life growing up because before meeting Jade, she hadn’t known it was possible for anyone to have two dads let alone that two men could be married and raising a child together. Just goes to show the blinders a small town can put on your perspective, Aurora mused.

 

However, Jade was just like any other girl in most respects. She was a decent student and more interested in the glorious goings on of an almost adult life than of what was happening in the larger world. But Jade was also exotically gorgeous, with legs for miles, and long waist length black hair that any girl would kill for. Jade had always enjoyed a level of attention that seemed to eclipse everyone around her, but unlike many of the more athletic or popular girls who ran with the richer or most handsome boys who felt like they had the right to be arrogant, Jade was down to earth, fearlessly loyal to her friends, stubborn, and hot tempered. She could also be vindictive on her friends’ behalf, which was what was apparently happening right now.

 

“That miserable tosser!” Jade fumed, as angrily as if she had been the one who had been treated like dirt by the guy she liked and another a tear slipped down Faleen’s cheek before she quickly rubbed it away. “I wish I could just wring his rotten little neck. I wish for once we were living in Jordan where Baba’s brothers live. They’d relish a chance to punish a boy who’d done me wrong. If only they could be brought here with their work machetes and kitchen knives. Paul would be singing a different tune then, preferably one much higher pitched, and it would serve him right.”

 

“What did he do that was so horrible?” Aurora asked, confused at the severity of the tension engulfing the table like wildfire.

 

The whole group was silent for a few seconds and Aurora’s cheeks reddened at the incredulous looks she was receiving from the most wounded of their cohort and Jade who was obviously her protector at the moment. Finally, the scrutiny abated somewhat.

 

“Are you serious?” Jade asked, her voice holding no annoyance or venom just disbelief that Aurora could have missed Faleen’s whole sad ass story when it had taken up most of their lunchtime. “You haven’t been listening this whole time?”

 

Aurora’s cheeks reddened a shade darker at the revelation. Finally, Mulan took pity on her.

 

“Faleen has a crush on Paul Langton. Paul asked Faleen out Friday night and they made out in his dad’s car. Well, Faleen thought they were dating now or whatever,” Mulan explained dismissively, not even flinching when a hard glare from Jade was levelled at her for seeming about as detached from the situation as Aurora was, “but then when she approached Paul this morning, he said that it was just a date and he was going out with a different girl tonight, implying that she meant nothing to him, hence the heartbreak.”

 

As Aurora absorbed everything Mulan was saying, she looked across the table at her friends. Jade had her arms crossed over her chest as if restraining them would keep her from crossing the cafeteria and smothering Paul Langton in his mashed potatoes. Hana had set her tray aside and was reading through their World History homework already to help the time pass, lost inside her own little world.

 

Faleen looked just miserable with her red rimmed eyes and sniffly nose and, after hearing her entire story, Aurora agreed that the tiny blonde had good reason to feel that way. Last, Aurora’s attention settled on Mulan beside her. Usually, anti-social by anyone’s standards, Mulan tended only to contribute to their conversations if she was solicited to do so otherwise she sat and watched the people around her or gauged the reactions of her friends while they prattled away over which thirty something male actor was hottest in a movie that had just come out or what new songs on the radio were worth listening to.

 

For now, Mulan had shifted her focus off of Aurora, which was also typical of her. Even when Aurora would seem to want the other girl’s attention, Mulan was careful not to make eye contact or look at her too long. Instead, she usually looked anywhere, but Aurora or down at her feet or her balled up fists like she was doing now. Aurora frowned. In this moment of neglect by the person she most treasured, Aurora could understand how Faleen was feeling.

 

Aurora looked away from Faleen and reached across the table to grasp one of Faleen’s hands in her own.

 

“I’m sorry, Faleen. It’ll get better soon. I promise it will.” Aurora said, forcing a brave smile.

 

And little white lie though it might turn out to be, Aurora could at least hope that things really would get better.

 

Oooooooooo

 

The last few classes of the day inched along at a snail’s pace, but eventually they were over and every bored and half-asleep student came alive at the prospect of freedom. The halls filled immediately with the loudness of scuffling feet and elated conversations between friends who hadn’t seen one another since lunch (a long time to a teenager). Aurora and Hana both emerged into the stampede from World History and let the current of bodies carry them to their lockers in the social studies wing. Taking an opening when it presented itself, Aurora took Hana’s hand and led her against the traffic towards their shared locker.

 

“I swear it feels like there are more people in this hall every day,” Aurora grumbled, dropping her backpack as Hana quickly spun through the lock combination on their locker.

 

“Maybe there are,” Hana shrugged, managing to catch a stray text book as it vaulted out of the shared space at an odd angle. “Stranger things have happened.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Aurora agreed.

 

From then forward, they moved without speaking, each gathering the texts they needed for the night’s homework and the folders and notebooks that corresponded to each subject. Once they finished, the chaos around them had simmered down enough to where only a scattering of students were left idling about and it became easier to breathe in the constricted space.

 

“Is your Aunt picking you up today?”  Aurora asked distractedly, spotting Mulan, Jade, and Faleen approaching from the wing where their lockers were located out of the corner of her vision.

 

Hana’s passive expression stiffened as she adjusted the straps of her backpack across her shoulders.

 

“She can try, but today was a bad day. I think I’ll walk.”

 

Aurora’s eyebrows rose at that, but she didn’t say anything. Aurora, Mulan, and Jade all lived very close to Main Street where their families owned businesses and often walked to and from school together, but Hana’s house was down a couple of winding side streets and the thought of her walking the extra mileage alone—even in a friendly small seaside town like Storybrooke—bothered her. But Hana very rarely got to be able to make her own choices and if it would make Hana happy just to be able to walk and think about the day’s events, then Aurora would support her in it.

 

“So are any of you going to the Rabbit Hole tonight? It’s 18 and Under Night and anyone 16 to 18 doesn’t have to pay a cover charge.” Faleen asked, seeming completely recovered from her romantic misery.

 

“Wish I could, but Baba and Abba need me to help at the Hookah Lounge tonight.” Jade said. “That girl Dee Dee Murphy they hired has been missing her night shifts so I have been picking up the slack.”

 

“I probably won’t go either. Mr. Robinson really slammed us with homework in algebra.” Aurora said.

 

Faleen’s devil-may-care smile fell into a disappointed frown. It wasn’t as fun having to go out on the town by yourself. “What about you Mulan? Hana? There’s this older girl, Lacey, who does body shots on the billiards table. It’s super funny to watch.”

 

Hana just grunted. She knew she was being included in the conversation as a point of politeness because her friends didn’t want to leave her out. Everyone knew she couldn’t get out of her attic room at night if she tried, not with the thick bolted cedar wood door and the iron bars on the room’s only window. She was taking a risk as it was leaving through the opposite doors that she knew her aunt would be waiting at to pick her up and walking herself home. The risk was almost so frightening that Hana thought it might be better if she took the opportunity to run away, but she wasn’t eighteen yet and there was no where she could run that her aunt wouldn’t be able to get her back. It wasn’t worth it, not yet at least.

 

Aurora looked to Mulan expectantly, watching as Mulan squirmed under her scrutiny.

 

“I have better things to do than watch half naked women let questionable men suck alcohol out of their belly buttons,” Mulan answered with a grimace.  

 

“You guys are no fun,” Faleen pouted.

 

They walked out of the school without hurry, enjoying the meandering walk down residential streets in the warmth of the early autumn sun and meager traffic. They passed the cannery and turned onto the road that would lead to the main stretch of restaurants and shops the populated the Main Street. Jade said her goodbyes first and disappeared down a side alley that led to the back entrance of _The Arabian Nights: Restaurant, Hookah Lounge, & Spice Shop_. Mulan’s parents owned the only Chinese restaurant and takeaway operation in town (which was a cliché she was aware—but hey what could she do?). It was across the street from Granny’s diners, neighboring Dr. Hopper’s psychological practice and the Huas lived in the apartments above.

 

Yet, even though they were at her stop, Mulan didn’t leave the group just yet.

 

“You’re sure about not going out tonight?” Faleen asked again.

 

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Aurora said, with a sad smile.

 

Mulan didn’t glorify the question with a response, just glared. Hana looked uncomfortably awkward standing around on the street where anyone could see her.

 

“Alright, but you guys are missing out.” Faleen teased, back to her bubbly self.

 

Faleen took the hint, said her goodbyes and walked the extra block to her own house.

 

“I sh—should go,” Hana finally said, feeling weird having to say that instead of just leaving, but she figured that would be rude and the last thing she wanted to do was be rude to her friends.

 

“You need someone to walk the extra bit with you? I’m sure we could.” Aurora offered with a wide smile.

 

Mulan didn’t say anything, but she nodded her consent at Aurora’s words. But instead of being thrilled, Hana’s cheeks colored. She knew the offer was made out of kindness and concern for her welfare, but it made her feel like a child that needed minding and she’d wanted to walk to escape that feeling.

“No, I—I can make it alone. See you both at school tomorrow.”

 

And with that Hana turned and started down the fork that would eventually lead to her aunt’s house.

 

Mulan and Aurora stood there for a few seconds more, not quite daring to make eye contact. Then Mulan turned, intent on disappearing into her home to get out of this awkward moment, but Aurora was having none of it. The former princess grabbed her warrior’s hand and yanked her down the same alley Jade had disappeared down. Mulan let herself be led.  There was nothing she could say to deter Aurora when she wanted something and nothing that Mulan wouldn’t do to make the other girl happy, even at the expense of her own good sense. Even if she knew better. Even if she knew that it would be better for both of them if she didn’t.

 

Mulan opened her mouth to say something—anything—but before she could, the smaller brunette pushed her up against the brick wall of a building and captured Mulan’s lips in a longed for kiss. It was the thing Mulan had both wanted and dreaded all weekend long. Ever since last Friday when they had walked one another home and ended the afternoon making out pushed up against the back entrance of her family’s restaurant, Aurora had been a constant on her mind. If her grandmother’s voice—screaming in Chinese at another hopeless employee in the kitchen—hadn’t been loud enough to rouse the dead and wake Mulan from the blissful spell of Aurora’s hot mouth on hers, she didn’t know what they might have done next.

 

The way the other girl’s sky blue eyes shined when she even barely smiled, the succulent softness of her lips that seemed almost like velvet—like they were too soft to be real, and the cinnamon color of her shoulder length hair that refracted natural blondish highlights when the sunlight hit them just the right way. The way the girl was beautiful and yet humble, confident and yet kind, hard and yet soft at the same time—almost like a princess out of one of her grandmother’s fairy tales. Everything about Aurora was perfect to Mulan, perfect and forbidden and impossible.

 

After a few moments, they separated, both girls gasping for air and smiling despite the burning in their lungs and the simple fact that anyone could see them from their barely secluded position in the middle of the alleyway. Despite her reservations about their growing relationship, Mulan grinned like an idiot. She couldn’t help herself. The way Aurora made her feel—it defied any sort of reason. Just one kiss and she was putty in the other girl’s hands and yet a voice in the back of her head cried that this had to stop. That it wasn’t right and that her family would never accept her romantic relationship with another girl—even if Aurora was the most perfect girl in all the world—there was no way. It just wasn’t done. Mulan was expected to marry one day. Preferably a nice boy with a trade who could take care of her and maybe help her run the restaurant if one of her cousins didn’t want to do it. She knew that even in Asia, lesbian relationships weren’t unheard of. Frowned upon, shamed, yes, but unheard of or undoable no.

 

Still, that didn’t make Mulan _want_ to take on or shame her family just for the love of this one girl who might leave her one day anyway.

 

Mulan looked away from the joy in Aurora’s eyes, not wanting to encourage it any more than she knew was fair.

 

“That was amazing. You are amazing,” Aurora gasped out between breaths of warm air.

 

Mulan’s cheeks colored, but the embarrassment wasn’t enough to warn away the smile that was still on her face.

 

“You’re not bad yourself,” she whispered, raising her gaze again for the briefest of moments before dropping it again.

 

 “What’s wrong?” Aurora asked before she could stop herself.

 

Mulan’s dark eyes met hers again, this time they were wide and disbelieving.

 

“Are you serious?” Mulan asked, more sharply than she meant to. “What’s wrong? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that we made out last Friday after school and kissed again today or the fact that we’re both girls and friends at that and that—this,” she said, gesturing between the two of them, “whatever this is—might ruin our friendship beyond repair. Everything about what’s happening with us right now is wrong, why don’t you see that?”

 

Aurora’s expression sobered, but the newfound joy in her eyes didn’t go away.

 

“Just listen,” she began calmly, clasping Mulan’s hands in her own as if hanging onto them for dear life. “I spent the whole weekend thinking about what’s going on between us. At first I freaked out a little. I’ve only ever liked boys before. I never thought it was possible for me to, you know, like another girl that way, but I _do_ like you a lot. I’ve always sort of liked you—I just didn’t realize that I liked you in _that_ way until now and I—I would like to see where this goes. I would like to try and just—would you like to go on a date with me?”

 

The last sentence just sort of rushed out of her mouth and hit both girls like a gust of cold wind, but even though Aurora looked about as surprised as Mulan felt, she stood by her words and didn’t try to take them back. Mulan opened her mouth then closed it again without any words coming out. She didn’t know what to say. Was Aurora serious? Did she really want to date her and see where things went with them? Wasn’t she scared about what other people would say once they found out about them (and they would find out—secrets in a small town didn’t remain secrets for very long)? Wasn’t she scared about what her _parents_ would say? Or their friends?

 

 Jade probably wouldn’t care seeing as how she has two dads and they’d left their own countries behind to be together, but Hana would probably be mortified and Faleen would probably start asking all kinds of inappropriate questions about what sort of obscenely intimate things they got up to in their private time.

 

Just—no—nothing that came out of this could ever be good. Yet, even as Mulan convinced herself  that her fears were valid and justified, another thought raced to the forefront of her mind, one that shouldn’t have taken precedence over the doubts being lobbed around like volleyballs in her head, but it did.

 

“Why? I mean,” Mulan clarified shyly when Aurora became confused, “why do you like me?”         

 

Aurora’s expression softened and she squeezed Mulan’s hands a little tighter within her grip.

 

“Why wouldn’t anyone like you? You’re smart and beautiful and smoking hot and loyal and brave. You do things—sweet things—even when you look like you’d rather be doing anything else, just because it makes someone you care about happy. You’re strong—you don’t let anyone take you or your loved ones for granted. You’re brave—you always stand up for me, even if I am in the wrong and I deserve being heckled by someone, you don’t back down and you make me feel safe and alive and cared for without even trying and you deserve someone who will make you feel the same way every minute of every day.”

 

When Aurora finished, she sealed her declaration with another kiss. But unlike the first, this one was deep, impassioned; claiming, wanting. Mulan reacted almost immediately to the feel of Aurora’s lips on hers again. Something inside of her had broken down at Aurora’s words—a barrier she had never known had existed. A thing that kept her emotions confined and manageable and kept her from getting too involved in situations that might’ve allowed her to be hurt by the callousness of others and without that barrier—part of her soul lunged forward to merge with Aurora’s, hot and hungry.  

 

Almost automatically, Mulan took control of the kiss, flipping their positions so that Aurora was now pressed up against the wall and Mulan’s body was pressed up again hers. Aurora’s hands relinquished their grip on Mulan’s and she threaded her fingers through her dark wavy hair, which Mulan had thankfully left down today while Mulan’s hands gripped at the belt of her jeans as if it were a lifeline. Tentatively, Mulan bit down on Aurora’s bottom lip and pulled, gently opening the other girl’s willing mouth to further exploration.

 

Aurora groaned when their tongues met. She’d kissed a few boys before in her short lifetime, but it had never felt this good. The not-so-subtle forcefulness of their dry lips and inexperienced mouths had always left something to be desired in those encounters and now Aurora knew what had been missing. The gentle sensuousness of another girl’s mouth, not clashing or fighting with hers for dominance, but merging with hers as if they had been made for one another ignited a fire in Aurora’s blood that no other kiss had ever kindled and she wanted more.

 

Without her consent, one of the smaller brunette’s hands slid to apex of Mulan’s skull and then lightly scraped downward through the fleece-soft locks as if messaging her. The small encouraging gesture was answered as Mulan gripped Aurora’s waist tighter and drove her tongue deeper into the other girl’s mouth.  Both of them needed to breathe, but neither one of them seemed ready to relinquish the embrace just yet and go back to the wider world.

 

Finally, it was Mulan who surrendered Aurora’s kiss swollen lips and leaned their foreheads together to catch her breath.  Time stood still only for a moment longer. Their own little world had been abandoned in favor of survival and now they were both faced with the cold wash of reality—or at least Mulan was.

 

Finding an inner strength, Mulan pulled away. When Aurora opened her eyes, the other girl was looking at her with sad eyes and backing away from her slowly.

 

“Mulan, what—”

 

Mulan shook her head, her voice only a whisper laced with regret and fear, “I’m sorry.”

 

Then she ran, crossing the street, and disappearing through the front door of her family’s restaurant, leaving Aurora feeling cold and alone as if the most awe inspiring experience in both of their lives had never happened to begin with.

* * *

**To be continued...**

 


	2. Scorch the Sands; Break the Glass

**Two: Scorch the Sands; Break the Glass**

In Ruby’s opinion, liver and onions needed to be removed from the weekly menu.

 

Permanently.

 

Part of her—the part of her that valued her sanity too much to argue with Granny about her cooking—didn’t mind all that much. However, the other part of her that had to serve the potent irony smelling concoction to Leroy and Dr. Whale, who praised the strongly flavored dish for its protein content, was definitely committed to the mutiny of getting rid of the experience forever.

 

Of course it could just be the monotony of a ten hour shift and the constant scent and accompaniment of grease everywhere she looked.

 

Having had enough for a bit, Ruby threw her apron on the front counter and shouted to Granny and the other servers that she was taking her break now. Then she’d grabbed her red plaid pea coat from the rack by the front door and sauntered out into the early autumn chill before Granny could stop her.

 

At twenty-two, there had to be more to life than wiping down tables, cleaning out oil fryers, and having your butt pinched by ever low life letch who ever paid a tab and then getting tipped for it to boot, like she was some sort of prostitute who dressed in skimpy things because she was _asking_ for them to grab her ass! There was a difference between liking sex when she had it because it was fun and it felt good and banging every Tom, Dick, and sleaze ball just because she could.  Yet almost everyone in town who saw her adventurous outfits or knew her reputation failed to distinguish between the strong-willed, confident young woman Ruby was and whoredom and Ruby was fed up.

 

Ruby had always been comfortable in her own skin. She didn’t know why and for the most part, she didn’t care. All she knew was that while other kids her age were figuring out disturbing facts about their maturing forms and the feelings that accompanied them, Ruby was in tune with every subtlety, every nuance in her body almost before it happened. It was like she had something inside of herself—an awareness that was practically primal—which made everything about herself and the people surrounding herself easy to deduce. Like being to smell—as disgusting as it was—whether a girl was on her rag or pinpoint the spicy smell of sex on a couple who, despite showering afterwards, still smelled like they’d spent the morning fucking like rabbits hidden beneath a veneer of cheap soap.

 

In short, it had never been easy for Ruby to _be_ Ruby and as of now, she was through trying.

 

Grumpily, she kicked at the sidewalk beneath her feet with her boots, as if abusing the neutral pavement would give her the sense of normalcy she’d always desired. But nothing changed.

 

“A girl like you is too beautiful to wear a frown like that all of the time.”

Usually, those sorts of one liners came from Dr. Whale trying to perv his way into her pencil skirts, but this voice was lighter, frothier, and definitely female. Ruby turned. Spending her life working at Granny’s, she’d thought she’d met everyone in town at one time or another, but the woman standing before her wasn’t one of the yokel locals and Ruby had never been so thankful for anything in her life.

 

Ruby grinned despite her former glumness and pointed conspiratorially at the young brunette who was just a tad bit shorter than her, but beautiful beyond words and dressed to kill.

 

“Pot meet kettle,” she said.

 

“I haven’t frowned today since I saw you brooding over here,” Lacey replied, slowly sauntering up the sidewalk towards Ruby like she owned it. “So how did you know I was in a bad mood before?”

 

Ruby grinned, “I didn’t. You just told me.”

 

Lacey nodded, “Crafty, in a sexy sort of way. So, you’re out here crying in your nachos over, what? A guy? Believe me, honey, when I say he’s so not worth it if he gave up on a girl with a body like yours.”

 

Lacey stepped forward, stretching her hand out to unapologetically tuck a dark strand of Ruby’s hair behind her ear.

 

“I’m Lacey.”

 

Ruby didn’t know what to say. She knew she had to introduce herself , but this girl’s forwardness was slightly off putting. Instead, a rare blush just worked it’s ways up Ruby’s cheeks as she stood her ground.

 

“Ruby Lucas.”

 

“Ruby, huh?” Lacey repeated as if tasting the name on her tongue, “care if I call you Red?”

 

Ruby surprised herself, leaning forward so that her gaze locked boldly with Lacey’s.

 

“You can call me whatever you want so long as you say it with a smile on your face,” she said.

 

This encouraged Lacey and she closed the distance between them, daring to let her full lips briefly graze Ruby’s cheek in an uncharacteristic brush of intimacy before stepping back. Walking backwards, Lacey had a smirk on her face like the Cheshire cat as she gave finally gave Ruby space.

 

“I have a rule that I don’t usually kiss anyone unless they start something, but you made me want to break it.” She admitted with a wink, stopping to stand a few feet away. “Let’s hope you’re worth it, Red.”

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“I’ve got a prior engagement, but swing by the Rabbit Hole tonight at ten if you really want to see me in action. It was nice meeting you, Red.”  

 

With that, Lacey turned around and walked back down the street in the direction she’d come from. Ruby was left staring after her, feeling like she was a house left standing in the wake of a tornado.

 

OOOOOOOOOOOO

 

“A beach theme?!” Faleen shrieked, practically ripping the poster from its sticky moorings. “Really?!”

 

“How original,” Jade groaned, crossing her arms over her chest.

 

“What’s beach themed?” Aurora asked, approaching with Hana from the opposite direction.

 

The four girls were gathered by the wall in the humanities wing, a round buoy that the flow of bodies had to meander around on their way to their next classes before the bell rang.

 

“Homecoming!” Faleen screeched, a little too loudly. “The student council chose a beach theme this year. Isn’t it exciting?”

 

“Down girl,” Jade quieted her, “we still have a month to wait. You don’t want to give yourself a heart attack before the dance even begins do you?”

 

Aurora drowned out the rest of Faleen’s excited yammering as she stood up on her toes slightly to take in all of the faces swirling around them. Usually, the five of them met up at least a couple of times during the day in between classes because they were usually in the same wings at similar times, but today Aurora had only see three of her friends. The fourth was conspicuously absent.

 

Mulan.

 

Mulan was missing. She’d noticed her absence that morning before the first bell, but she’d just assumed Mulan had already been in her first classroom already. It had happened before, usually when Mulan wanted some time to herself just to think or be anti-social. But Aurora always saw her during the day and yet, Mulan wasn’t anywhere to be found. A permanent frown settled onto the brunette’s face.   _Damn it_.

 

“Has anyone seen Mulan today?”

Jade shook her head in the negative, “Tycha who volunteers in the main office Tuesday and Monday mornings said she called in sick.”

 

Something inside of Aurora balked at the news. Mulan was never sick. Aurora had known the other girl since preschool and the only times she had ever missed school due to injury or illness were times when she had either been forcefully removed from school premises to a hospital or sent home for tossing her cookies on Mrs. Peabody’s Doc Martens.

 

“Why would she tell you about it?” Hana asked, skeptically.

 

“Because I didn’t see Mulan before first period and I asked,” Jade shrugged before leaning over conspiratorially. “And because I think Tycha has a bit of a crush on me. Not to brag or anything, of course.”

 

“Of course,” the three of them echoed in unison.

 

They all gave into a myriad of emotions after that. Jade ‘s self-satisfied smirk spoke for itself. Faleen frowned at her, Hana’s cheeks reddened predictably, and Aurora rolled her eyes.

 

“What makes you think that?” Faleen asked, absently combing her fingers through her hair as the crowd in the hall lessened, a telltale sign that the minutes leading into their next classes were waning. “Maybe she’s just overly friendly and not good at keeping school secrets to herself.”

 

“Oh, please,” Jade said, rolling her eyes as they began to separate slowly and make their own paths down the corridor, “I’ve got a wicked hot body that appeals to all sexes, Faleen. Believe me when I say I know what I know.”

 

The warning bell rang. Aurora settled into her desk in Mr. Kolwalski’s biology class just before the last warning played. Though the lives of single celled organisms warranted enough attention to jot down just in case there was a quiz on the stuff later, the young brunette found herself unable to focus on any of the material being lectured about on the overhead projector. All she could focus on was Mulan and her conspicuous absence.

 

Was Mulan really sick or was she just faking to get around seeing Aurora? Mulan had never been one to shrink away from responsibility. She had always known what was expected of her and had met or exceeded every expectation without complaint, but the ways of love or the fear of it could change people; make them act strangely. Maybe that was what was going on with Mulan? She was obviously freaked out about the kisses they’d shared and what sort of implications a relationship could have for her.  

 

Or maybe Mulan really was sick? Stranger shit had happened in the world right? Catastrophic things on the same level as Mulan actually missing a day of school like the extinction of the Dinosaurs and the Great Fire of London in 1666…

 

“Aurora,” Mr. Kolwalski called, not getting an immediate response from the girl like he’d expected. “Aurora!”

 

Aurora startled out of her daze to find herself looking up into a small stack of white papers being held in front of her face by the biology teacher.

 

“Would you take one and pass it down, please?”

 

Aurora nodded and hurriedly did as she was asked. Mr. Kolwalski gave her an odd look before returning to the head of the class. Her cheeks reddened as the curious stares of the boy who sat ahead of her lingered on Aurora’s face even after the teacher and the rest of their classmates had returned their attentions to the lecture.

 

What was the boy’s name? Philip? Yeah, that was it.

 

The boy grinned before turning back around in his seat. The way he’d smiled at Aurora made her feel uncomfortable for a reason she couldn’t name. She didn’t know Philip very well but seemed nice enough. Zoning out again, Aurora’s thoughts strayed back to Mulan and her deep chocolate eyes and soft, soft lips. Maybe Aurora should stop by and check on her after school? She glanced at the clock above the door. She had a few hours left before her day ended. Perhaps, she could collect Mulan’s homework for her and drop it by the restaurant later. Then she’d get to the bottom of whatever was really going on with the girl.

 

The rebellious thought brought a smile to Auora’s face. Yes, she was going to see Mulan today, even if it killed her.

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Mulan leaned against the cold cement wall in the large storage room that occupied the back of her family’s restaurant. The cool, dampness of the room relieved the fire scorching across her skin and forehead just enough to make sitting upright bearable.

 

Grandma Hua had been in their apartment caring for her for most of the morning, but when Mulan’s father had left to supervise a shipment of shrimp being brought in from the docks, Grandma Hua had slipped into the mantle of militant business enforcer. The scourge of the idle and incompetent employee, Grandma Hua was more feared by her own staff than anyone else in town and for good reason. Just because she had other duties, though, didn’t mean that Grandma Hua would leave her only granddaughter to convalesce alone on the couch upstairs without supervision.

 

No, where Grandma Hua went, Mulan wasn’t too sick to follow.

 

“Exercise is good for the fever,” Grandma Hua told her as she helped Mulan down the stairs from the apartment above and shuffled her through the side entrance so no customer would see the miserable girl and immediately abandon their dinner. “It helps the body sweat out the bad. Trust Nai Nai on this.”

 

So it was that Grandma Hua had directed her to a wooden crate in the storeroom, leaned her against the comfortingly cool wall and gone to berate the good-for-nothing boy at the grill who always added the sauce to the cooking chicken improperly so that it would splatter back up and waste itself all over his apron. Mulan pulled the fleece blanket around her shoulders tighter and tried to repress a shudder at the shrill note in Grandma Hua’s voice as it barged into her quiet refuge from the next room.

 

“No! Not like that! Look at how much sauce you waste? What do you think we are? Millionaires? Off with you! I will do this. You stir the vegetables.”

 

It was an odd feeling, being home during the day instead of at school. Mulan had never willingly spent a day home from school in her life. There had been times she had been _sent_ home for various accidental injuries and that one time in second grade when she’d vomited on Mrs. Peabody’s overpriced shoes in the middle of answering a question.

 

And based on her current experience propped up against a wall, Mulan couldn’t understand why anyone would pretend to be sick just to get out of school. Jade was the only person Mulan knew personally who’d faked being sick just to stay home and that was because she used to brag about what a good actress she was until her dads quit buying the act.

 

Mulan groaned as she suppressed a wave of nausea. Maybe it was better that she wasn’t in school right now. If she threw up in front of Aurora—or worse— _on_ her, she would never live it down. Thinking about Aurora just a little bit made Mulan’s stomach flip, but not in an unpleasant way this time. Against her better judgment, she missed the other girl’s velvety pink lips and shining blue eyes. And her smile…her smile had no other equal in this world. Not even the bright burn of colors that haloed the world as the onset of night began could compare to the beauty that burned in Aurora’s eyes, from the inside out as if detailing some inner strength no one was aware of yet. Everyone would be surprised one day to see what the girl was truly capable of, especially Aurora herself.

 

 More than that, Mulan wanted to know her. Really _know_ her. Every inch of her inside and out. She knew better though. Mulan knew that a life with a beautiful and brave woman like Aurora wasn’t something she deserved or could ever have and yet she chose to forget that sometimes. Times when Aurora would laugh at something Mulan said and the healthy glimmer in her eyes would kick start Mulan’s heart into overdrive. Or she would smile and Mulan would feel the air leave her lungs completely.

 

“No! No, you don’t cut vegetables like that! What are you blind? You want the customer to choke and Grandma to be sued!?”

 

Mulan sighed and glared at thin air as her grandmother’s angry voice rudely interrupted her day dreams, reminding Mulan of what she so wanted to forget, that being with Aurora wasn’t possible.

The first reason was rather poignant: it simply wasn’t acceptable, largely because of the belief that a woman needed a man to produce children and secondly, because Mulan was an only child as were both of her parents. Loving another woman wasn’t impossible, but it was frowned upon and Mulan was expected by her family to marry a man and carry on the survival of the family.

 

It was expected. She knew this expectation well. Mulan’s mother had told her the story as a little girl of how her parents had arranged her marriage. Her father had come to her when she was twenty and told her that a neighbor had noticed her and that he would like to know more about her and her family so that he might engage her to his son. A dowry had been negotiated between the parents of the perspective bride and groom and the engagement of their marriage had been announced. Most people Mulan knew would have a hard time accepting that their parents’ marriage wasn’t perpetuated by love or at the very least lust, but it was a family tradition.

 

Besides, a marriage not based in love didn’t mean that it _was_ entirelyloveless. Mulan’s parents had grown to love one another not long after their wedding and though Mulan knew that she might grow to love a future husband one day as well in theory, it wasn’t a prospect she wanted for herself. In China, a woman’s first master was her father. Then when she married, her master became her husband and her husband’s parents became her own. However, Mulan had been raised in Storybrook and to her, the idea of having anyone lording over her made her sick to her stomach, but there was the every constant expectation that even though she was a girl, Mulan could at least marry well and care for her parents in their waning years.

 

Usually, this expectation would fall heavily upon a son, but it fell to Mulan as she was the only descendant of both families. Now, if it was in her nature, Mulan could rebel. She _could_ tell her parents that she doesn’t want to marry a man, that she doesn’t want children, and that she doesn’t even like men, but all of those things—she knew—would break her parents’ hearts and bring shame down upon them and their name. She didn’t have it in her to do that to them.

 

She could always run around with Aurora in secret, but there were several problems with that idea.

 

One, was that keeping her relationship with Aurora a secret might make it appear that Mulan was ashamed of loving Aurora and Mulan was sure she could never be ashamed of that. Two, there was something cowardly about sulking about in the shadows and it was beneath what a girl like Aurora deserved. Aurora deserved to be paraded around in the sunlight, romanced in flower gardens, and worshipped fully like the beautiful goddess she was and Mulan couldn’t give Aurora that without bringing dishonor to her family so the course of action to take was clear.

 

In all fairness to Aurora and her parents, Mulan would keep her feelings to herself. She wouldn’t love and both Aurora and her family would be better off for it.

 

Mulan brought her fist up to cover her mouth as a hacking cough rose up from deep within her chest and momentarily incapacitated her. Silently, she prayed to the spirits of her ancestors that she would have the fortitude to follow through with her plan and do what was best for everyone.

* * *

 

  ** _So what does everyone think? Does Mulan have it in her?_**


	3. The Tongue That Kills Without Drawing Blood

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

 

-The Buddha-

* * *

 

_30 Years Ago..._

The ship was carrying them farther east than Aurora had ever heard of to a distant land known colloquially throughout the Enchanted Forest only as the Middle Kingdom. She had been woken before sunrise by her mother and quietly bundled up in layers of clothing and cloaks before being rushed onto a ship docked at the far end of the harbor.

 

“Mother, where are we going?” Aurora whispered.

 

“Don’t ask questions, Aurora. We must hurry.”

 

The queen had been shrouded in a deceptively simple cloak that hid her fine gown and allowed her to blend in with the men of her husband’s guard whom had escorted them to the water’s edge. Once they boarded the ship, they were met by a man dressed in leather pants that billowed out from his thighs down to the tall boots that ended beneath his knees. His cotton shirt was simple and a large blue coat, embroidered with silver and red thread covered that. The blue taqiyah that sat atop his dark head completed the intimidating ensemble. Had Aurora been more awake, she might’ve felt more fear at the odd situation than she did then, but as it was all she could do was follow her mother and go along with her plan.

 

“You must be the exalted passenger we’re to transport, yes?” The man asked, approaching the retinue.

 

Queen Leah held her head high and kept her hands interlaced with her eldest daughter’s

 

She didn’t seem frightened or put off by the man. Instead, she was strangely relaxed, they both were, as if they knew one another or had known one another a long time ago. Aurora had never questioned her mother much on her past before she married King Stefan and became queen of their realm. Her mother had always just been her mother to her, never before had Aurora taken it upon herself to think of Queen Leah as a person separate from her family whom had lived a life before coming to the Enchanted Forest. Obviously, though Queen Leah was more than she seemed and it made Aurora’s cheeks color knowing that she had thought so little of her outside of the role of queen and mother.

 

Leah stepped closer to Sinbad, relinquishing Aurora’s hand.

 

“How are you, my sailor?” She asked with a smile.

 

“Never better, milady, never better. Though I must say I was surprised to receive a message from you after all of this time. ”

 

Queen Leah cleared her throat and reached back for Aurora’s hand again, pulling her daughter closer to the foreign man who now studied her casually.

 

“You owe me and I need to collect on that favor now, Sinbad.”

 Sinbad the sailor nodded his head resolutely. Though from an eastern kingdom far across the sea much like the Middle Kingdom only farther still, Sinbad had once fled to Aurora’s land and had been sheltered from his enemies by her mother’s family until it had been safe for him to return to sea. He owed his life to this young queen and he would repay that debt by spiriting away her daughter to a land where not even the most ruthless sorceress of their age would be able to get her hands on her.

 

“You have my word, Leah. I will do everything that I can to keep her safe,” Sinbad said.

 

Queen Leah nodded and turned to her daughter. She leaned forward and placed an affectionate kiss on Aurora’s forehead.

 

“Oh my darling girl! We will meet again when all of this is over and Maleficent has been dealt with. I promise you. You will come home from this adventure and find your family and your land far better than when you left us.”

 

Aurora willed the tears burning behind her eyes not to fall. She hadn’t known that her parents were planning to do this. They hadn’t told her. They hadn’t given her a choice. And though Aurora knew her parents loved her and were sending her away for her own protection, she can’t help the hurt little twinge that rises in her chest that her parents couldn’t believe in her enough to know that she would defeat Maleficent without needing to flee their own land to do so. They would always win.

 

 Because good always wins? Right?

 

That day had been almost a week ago now and Aurora was sure now that she never wanted to set foot on another ship for as long as she lived. The High Sea which separated the realms of the Enchanted Forest from the Middle Kingdom was long and deep. It had taken the whole week’s sailing, seeing nothing but endless horizon after endless horizon between sunrise and sunset to even get this far and still Aurora had no idea where they were or how much longer they had before they reached land again.

 

The ship’s captain, Sinbad, seemed unbothered by the lack of visible progress. Aurora had already gathered that he was from a land called Agrabah, a desert country she remembered from her lessons that was so far away from the Enchanted Forest that it made the Middle Kingdom look like a neighboring state. She didn’t know how long it had taken Sinbad to sail to the coast of the Enchanted Forest, but she guessed that he’d been at sea for far longer than a week. Aurora wanted to trust that Sinbad knew what he was doing, but a larger part of her screamed that this man was a stranger whom she didn’t know and couldn’t trust. Her mother knew him, but her mother wasn’t her. Suddenly, Aurora was thrust into the middle of a situation that she was never trained for, a situation that nothing in her background had prepared her for and she was expected to deal.

 

On some level, the thought if it was exhilarating. In theory if not in practice, it was thrilling to be able to get out of that tiny kingdom close to the sea and visit a land she’d only heard about in fairytales. But on a far closer level, the practice of leaving behind the only world she’d ever known filled Aurora’s entire being with fear.

 

The vessel dipped just then, pulling Aurora from her musings and reminding her that they were indeed on a ship in the middle of an ocean like a spec of sand in the middle of a desert.

 

A deep throaty chuckle suddenly bubbled up from behind her.

 

“Land does not appear just because you want it to. Take my word on that, I know from personal experience.”

 

Aurora startled and found Sinbad suddenly standing beside her at the ship’s railing. How he’d gotten so close to her with her realizing it, she didn’t know, but she didn’t like it.

 

“Haven’t you ever heard that it is rude to sneak up on someone?”

 

Sinbad shrugged—unbothered—and leaned his hands against the railing as he spread his feet to more comfortably hold his weight as he relaxed just a little.

 

He chuckled again, “I didn’t know you were a someone, only a spirited princess who looks like the image of her mother from another life.”

 

Aurora rolled her eyes at the roguish smile he directed her way. If the stories told to her by her nanny as a child were to be believed, Sinbad the sailor was a daring ladies’ man, a rogue who was more tenderhearted than he liked to let on. It was in this moment, frightened and among strangers that Aurora was able to understand what her mother had to have seen in him and how his goodness could have tempted her heart before Queen Leah had even met Aurora’s father. Perhaps it was the rush of salty ocean air that was making her lightheaded or perhaps it was the fact that her mother had trusted this man with her life and she should too, but Aurora suddenly felt the need to confide in him.

 

“How do you stand it,” Auora asked, watching the waves swirl and slap together for miles upon miles of seemingly endless blue. “Don’t you miss your home? Your family?”

 

Sinbad paused a moment then shrugged again and stood up straighter, crossing his strong arms over his chest.

 

“My ship is my home and my crew is my family. Everything else slips away,” Sinbad admitted quietly. “But your fate will be very different from mine I think, princess. It must be hard leaving the only home you’ve ever known behind for another world completely foreign to you, but it will get better. You will see.”

 

As tears collected in the corners of the princess’s eyes, she gave into her heart’s simple yearnings for home and hope and she prayed to whatever higher power was listening that this new land she was going to wouldn’t be so frightfully different from the world she already knew.

 

* * *

 

_Present Day_

 

Aurora was pissed. Utterly and truly fed up.

 

There was annoyance, then there was normal anger, and finally there was how Aurora was feeling right now, which went beyond words.

 

 A new school day had come and gone and Aurora hadn’t so much as looked at Mulan once during the whole eight hours of classes. Aurora had even taken the next step beyond the cold shoulder: the lonely walk home without her friends. She didn’t care that they’d notice her absence and confront her about it tomorrow or sooner. And she certainly didn’t care that that same hurt look of betrayal would be cast across Mulan’s features like a great barren expanse of land where nothing grows anymore. Her heart didn’t break for Mulan’s pain at having chased her away. Aurora wouldn’t let it. She’d already let herself be dragged down enough in the name of unrequited love already without adding to that humiliation more.

 

The blonde’s gait subconsciously quickened as thoughts of the previous day ran rampant through her head. Aurora had done what she’d planned on doing and showed up at Mulan’s doorstep on the previous afternoon with the homework from her missed classes. The blonde had expected Mulan’s face to brighten the moment she saw her. She’d whittled away the hours that day daydreaming of how this bashful smile would overtake Mulan and light up her dark eyes, but Aurora’s daydreams had turned out to be just that: dreams.

 

Instead, Mulan’s expression when she had opened the door and found Aurora waiting there had been pensive and closed off.

 

“Jade said you weren’t feeling well,” Aurora said shrugging her shoulders and trying to keep her voice confident and steady. “So I got the assignments you missed from your teachers and brought them over.”

 

Mulan didn’t say anything at first. Just stared back at Aurora listlessly. It wasn’t hard to tell that she really had been sick. Mulan’s normally vibrant olive complexion was sallow and her usually bright brown eyes were dull and supporting large circles that appealed to be weighing them down. Right now the other girl was leaning against the doorjamb across from Aurora and the blonde was glad of that for she was sure that without the wall’s added support, Mulan would’ve surely collapsed under the weight of her own frame.

 

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that,” Mulan finally mustered. “But I do appreciate it, Aurora, really I do.”

 

The blonde couldn’t help the redness which surged into her cheeks any more than she could the feeling of immense joy that spread through her entire being from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Mulan’s lips even twisted up briefly into a weak smile, but it was short lived. They continued to stand together in awkward silence for a few minutes even after Aurora had handed over the folder filled with eventual homework.  Then Mulan briefly closed her eyes and refocused on Aurora as if steeling herself for what was to come.

 

“You shouldn’t be here, you know. I mean I appreciate your bringing over my assignments, but I thought we were going to try to distance ourselves from one another for a bit,” Mulan said softly, so softly that it seemed like she’d almost never said anything, but she had and she couldn’t take it back.

 

Aurora’s expression instantly fell.

 

“That’s news to me,” she said.

 

Mulan kept quiet at that. It was true they hadn’t exactly had a heart to heart about their feelings, but Mulan had taken it for granted that her refusal of a relationship meant they would be spending more time apart from now on. Aurora though, wasn’t one for assumptions or the ambivalence of silent communications. She was straight forward and if Mulan was going to brush her aside like she was nothing, then Aurora needed to hear those words from her own mouth.

 

“Come on, Aurora. You know this thing between us…it just won’t work. It can’t.”

 

Everything about the way the sick girl was acting right now was rubbing Aurora the wrong way.

 

“And you know that without even trying because you’re just so wise aren’t you, Mulan?” Aurora snapped, not knowing if she was more upset at Mulan’s lack of will to try or her own foolish notions that showing up at the other girl’s doorstep would fix everything. “I can’t believe I came here thinking—well, I don’t know what I thought anymore. I just—I need to go.”

 

Aurora hurried down the stairwell from Mulan’s door and was almost at the sidewalk when Mulan caught up with her and grabbed her coat sleeve to slow her progress, their hands brushing warmly together in the process.

 

“Aurora—,” Mulan tried when she couldn’t get the blonde to stop. 

 

The other girl used the momentum of her fleeing to turn and propel herself into Mulan’s startled arms. Slowly in comparison, she reached up and held Mulan’s face between her hands, the only other sounds registering in the late afternoon town was that of their breaths mingling. The brunette’s dark gaze met Aurora’s light one and seemed to get lost there, stuck like a drowning animal who didn’t seem to care that they were drowning at all and rather welcomed the feeling. Their eyes continued to stare into one another, only breaking contact when Aurora’s focus dipped to Mulan’s parted lips and then back up again.

 

Mulan’s mind was buzzing a million miles a minute. There was disorienting dizzying and at the same time intoxicating about how their two bodies seemed to fit together where ever they touched and how the chill Mulan had been feeling in her bones all day seemed to fade away in the wake of the undiluted warmth shared by Aurora’s small frame.

 

“I know you love me. I can feel it even if you don’t want to admit it.”

 

The sound of Aurora’s steady voice, confident, determined, and yet somehow sad broke Mulan out of her musings and she had to pull her gaze away from Aurora and focus on a fixed point across the road or else she feared that this united front of resistance might fail. Needing the distance to reinforce her resolve, Mulan took a step away from the blonde, remaining within comforting halo of their shared personal space, yet no longer touching. The coolness of the autumn breeze splashed against Mulan’s face and seemed to wake her up, helping give her the strength for what she needed to do.

 

“Aurora, this cannot be. You know it as well as I do,” Mulan sighed, after they parted.

 

At the admonition, the confident hope in Aurora’s expression fell away and renewed anger, stronger than before, bled into her cheeks. Without saying anything, she turned and tried to flee again. Mulan reached out for Aurora’s arm a second time, but this time around the other girl recoiled from her as if she’d just watched the girl she loved do something horrific like drown a kitten.

 

“Aurora…” Mulan tried again, her throat feeling tight.

 

This had been what she wanted right? What she’d needed? To push Aurora away? If that was so, then why did it hurt so damn much seeing the betrayal in the other girl’s eyes?

 

“No!” Aurora turned on the brunette sharply, looking at her with the most chillingly broken expression Mulan had ever seen as her voice wavered, “I never thought I’d ever say this, especially not to you, but you’re a coward Hua Mulan and I don’t want to see you ever again!”

 

With that, Aurora had scurried away in the direction of her home, barely bothering to look both ways to check the traffic on her way across the main street. Mulan watched her go, feeling the early autumn chill again in her bones, but not moving to return back inside into the waiting warmth of her building. She deserved this. She deserved to be cold because she had taken the most precious thing in her life and thrown it away like it meant nothing to her. That hadn’t been her intention, but that had been what had happened nonetheless. Aurora was gone and—despite her better judgment—Mulan couldn’t help but think that she wasn’t coming back this time.

 

Now, it was a day later and Aurora had avoided Mulan like the plague and intended to keep up that trend for as long as possible. Even the mere sight of the other girl chatting with Jade or just looking at her in the same forlorn, dejected way she had all day whenever Aurora walked into the room and ignored her, had been enough to send Aurora’s heartbeat into overtime and call her resolve to stay away from the other girl into question. Through some miracle, the blonde had managed to make it through the day without giving into the urge to speak to Mulan and apologize for her behavior (though she knew it wasn’t completely her fault—Mulan had rejected her after all!) and her righteous anger encouraged her to keep up the same pattern tomorrow.

 

 _I hope_ , Aurora thought forlornly as she brooded her way up the long driveway her father had paved and repaved until it was smooth and crackless. The blue Victorian home Aurora had always known loomed ahead of her seeming taller and somehow judgmental as she climbed the front steps up onto the porch.  The Edmonton’s Victorian home had been bought for the beauty of its symmetry and its closet space. Large cylindrical alcoves with high windows and spiraling rooftops that resembled towers on a castle framed the edges of the house.

 

The much coveted spaces had been fought over by Aurora and her siblings. Both Aurora and her younger sister, Amalie, had coveted those two tower rooms so they could feel like princesses situated in some far off castle of their own somewhere overlooking the town like it was their own kingdoms.  Their younger brother, Julian, had wanted one of those corner rooms because his sister’s wanted them and for no other reason. Being the eldest had given Aurora some leverage in the matter but not enough to secure her own room. She’d had to settle for sharing the room she’d bargained for with her sister so Julian—ever the cry baby—could have his way and have the tower room on the other side of the house to himself. It had been the compromise their mother had struck for both girls to be able to be princesses in their own right—just not in their own castles. That particular family conflict had been six years or so ago in the making, but its implications were still being felt in some ways.

 

Most days, sharing her space didn’t bother Aurora much beyond manageable annoyance, but today wasn’t like most days.  Today and yesterday both had gone beyond Aurora’s tolerance for emotional toil. She didn’t want to see anyone, let alone her little sister.

 

As she opened the unlocked door and stepped inside, her anger dissipated into an empty unhappiness. She could hear the rush of water and the clang-clank of ceramic plates that meant her mother was doing dishes in the kitchen while something that smelled delicious (probably her mother’s world famous south western chicken with braised asparagus if Aurora’s trained nose could be trusted) simmered away in the oven. Normally, Aurora would shed her backpack in the living room and watch something mindless on TV before resigning herself to her homework, but today she continued straight up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door shut behind her without a care as to the sound it would make or how it would rattle the house.

 

Her backpack landed unceremoniously in a heap in a far corner while Aurora flopped heavily down onto her bed and tried to weather the torrid storm cloud of agonies brewing inside of her, but despite her best efforts, her chest still felt heavy and the world around her appeared dull and colorless. She dreaded going back into school tomorrow. She dreaded seeing Mulan and the mournful, dejected look on the girl’s face and the resentment that look would immediately cause Aurora to feel and then guilt for being its cause. She dreaded ever rising from her bed again at all. She even dreaded going down to dinner and having to endure her parents’ questions about how her day at school had gone. Nothing seemed bright and sunny, though the sun was technically up outside. There was no hope, there was no optimism inside of her clawing to get out. Everything seemed bleak and filled to the brim with discontent.

 

Why did Mulan have to be such a coward? Aurora knew the girl well enough to know that cowardice wasn’t her usual state of being.  Mulan never backed away from anything. She’d proven through years of stubborn pigheadedness that she would stand firm in any situation no matter if she hated it or not. She always pushed forward, she never gave up no matter what the cost and yet she _had_ given up on Aurora and any chance of developing the feelings they both shared. How little did Aurora have to mean to Mulan for her to give up on them before they had even begun? Perhaps, she had mistaken the attraction Mulan had for her as something more than it was.

 

Tears dribbled down from her red rimmed eyes for the fifth time that day. Aurora didn’t both wiping them away. It felt as though a part of her that had always been there had been forcibly ripped away from her body and the pain was unbearable. Why did it have to hurt so much?

 

“Darling, I’m home! You look like shit, by the way.” Amalie piped up as she walked into the room and closed the bedroom door with her foot behind her. She gave Aurora another sidelong glance before dumping her book bag in the middle of the room and flopping down theatrically onto her own twin bed and staring at her sister like she was the most interesting entertainment in the world.

 

“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” Aurora sniped, rolling so that her back was facing her sister on the other side of the room.

 

“Hmmmm,” Amalie pretended to think about it. “Why I believe that is a custom practiced in most polite societies, but since this room is my room too, I’d say you’re just going to have to deal.”

 

Aurora screwed her eyes shut again as another wave of grief washed through her. She wished she could be left alone again to her own devices like she was for the first ten minutes of being home before her sister crawled like an amoeba back into her personal space. No, apparently that was too much to ask of whatever sadistic/lazy higher power was watching over then in their sleepy seaside hamlet.

 

“Seriously, though, what’s up with you? You look absolutely miserable. Is it boy troubles?”

 

Aurora snorted, finding some small humor in that.

 

“I wish. Might be easier if it was,” She sniffled.

 

Aurora yelped as she was suddenly upended into the air as another weight dropped itself down into the meager space of her bed beside her. When she opened her eyes again, Amalie was face to face with her, light hazel eyes staring back at her with a happy sparkle in them that Aurora used to feel and wished she could feel again.

 

“Is this about Mulan?”

 

“What? Wh—why would you think it was?” Aurora croaked, trying but failing to hide her surprise that her sister guessed the cause of her misery right on the nose.

 

Amalie rolled her eyes and propped her head up on her arm.

 

“I’m fourteen, not two. You two are like, joined at the hip. Very seldom is one of you seen without the other and yet both yesterday and today you’ve been all quiet and broody and not gushing about her like you usually are when you get home from school.”

 

Aurora cringed, “Am I that obvious?”

 

Amalie’s eyebrows rose into her hairline, “Am I that subtle?”

 

Aurora sighed, finding a great deal of the heaviness that had been weighing her down all day suddenly gone and smiled despite herself. Amalie always did have a way of putting her in a better mood without seemingly having to try.  Everything wasn’t okay and tomorrow would suck regardless, but being here in this moment with Amalie, everything was somehow better, if only temporarily.

 

 

* * *

 

_30 Years Ago_

Drums pounded and a trumpet blew from the town center. A representative from the emperor’s court had arrived. The village had been buzzing with talk that he would be coming. Men from the next village over had already been recruited to fend off the army invading from the North. It had only been a matter of time until they came to Mulan’s village as well. It was the afternoon and her family was settled around the main table chatting and eating, but everything stopped with the sound of the drums.

 

Hua Zhou struggled to rise from his kneeling position at the head of the table. Mulan and her mother moved to help him but the old soldier in him was too proud and he waived away their reaching hands.  Without a word passing his lips, he led the family out past the gates of their ancestral home and into the center of the town where a crowd was gathering. The emperor’s representative wasn’t clad in armor so resplendent as to serve as the seal of his office, but instead in fine silk robes that made him appear more refined that the man probably was. His hair was pulled up into a topknot so tight that it looked painful and had been combed so slick with oil that it reflected the shine of the sun like an obsidian mirror.

 

As his audience began to murmur and grow restless, the great man dismounted his horse using the back of a guard kneeling on all fours as a stepping stone before his polished boots touched the ground. Another guard approached holding a long yellow roll of paper tied with a red ribbon that bore the heavy seal of the emperor in one fist and the strap of a leather satchel in the other. He bowed low and upon standing again, held the scroll out to the emperor’s representative.  The man took it and unrolled the paper, clearing his throat, he began to read.

 

“By decree of his Imperial Highness the Emperor, every man from the Northern settlements is to come forward and give himself in service to protect the kingdom from the invading barbarians. When your name is called, step forward and accept your reporting orders.”

 

The emperor’s servant read the list of names at an unhurried pace, in that formal way of Confucian ceremonial procedure that so defined everything about the imperial court from deciding who was good enough to pay tribute to his imperial highness the son of heaven to the meticulous dimensions of the ceramic tiles that populated the palace floor. When they called her father’s name, the old man marched forward like a feeble version of the young soldier he used to be. He tried to hide how his hand shook when he used his cane to support the useless leg he’d sacrificed years earlier in another war against the Mongols and how unsteady he was on his feet when he marched straight-backed into the crowd. It wasn’t hard for Mulan to catch up with him once he’d been handed his orders and retreated. They were still only half of the way from walking back into the safety of their own courtyard, but Mulan couldn’t help addressing her father before they were behind closed walls, so great was her curiosity to know if he was seriously considering going back to the army, which would surely be suicide at his age.

 

“Papa, you aren’t really thinking of going are you?”

 

“The emperor has summoned me. It’s my duty to serve him and my honor.”

 

“But papa, your bad leg…how will you fight? You can’t,” Mulan protested loudly.

 

Though they weren’t speaking any louder than usual, a few of the families around them had begun to stare unapprovingly at the interaction between Mulan and her father. Every family in the village had to sacrifice their fathers, husbands, and brothers so that they could all be protected against the invading hordes and yet no else was openly causing such a display over it in the town center as Mulan was. She was aware of the collective disapproval of her neighbors, but it didn’t trouble Mulan enough to deter her from her mission to stop her father from giving up his life just because he didn’t have a son who could take his place on the battlefield.

 

“I must,” Zhou said with conviction.

 

“But—”

 

“Mulan,” her father sighed in exasperation. “You are my only child. You need to focus on finding yourself a suitable husband and leave the business of war to me.”

 

Mulan scurried around so she was standing in front of her father now, grasping his hands firmly and standing resolute so he couldn’t just step around her and ignore her pleas as he usually did.

 

“I don’t want a “suitable” husband, papa. You know that. I am just as spirited and able as any young man to go out and experience the world and I am a better swordsman than most of the boys in the village. Let me go in your place. I can fight. You know I can. Believe in me, papa, please.”

 

“Enough! You are my daughter, Mulan, and I have always allowed you to get away with more than I should have because I love you and indulge you your foolish whims, but you are not a child anymore and it is well past time for you to grown up and give up these childish notions of adventure and swordplay and take a husband, make grandchildren I can be proud to give my life for. Settle down and become the woman you were meant to be. Do not shame us both by continuing with this masquerade any longer.”

 

 Her father wrenched his hands from her grasp, stood straighter, and marched past her leaving Mulan adrift among the not so quiet admonishments of her neighbors. Her behavior, she knew was unacceptable in many ways, but Mulan couldn’t will herself to take it back. If it meant saving her father’s life then her arguments were justified and no one could convince her otherwise. 

 

“Really, Mulan,” Her mother scolded as she slowed to follow her husband into the house. “Have a care. Your father is a great man from a family of warriors. Do not shame him for all the town to see. Sometimes I wish I had borne him sons instead of a daughter too strong-willed to know what is best for her. Come along, we have tonight’s dinner to prepare. I shall be your father’s last before he sets out for the Ordos.”

 

Mulan nodded, but didn’t follow her mother inside. Her pride was too hurt. Like her father, she felt the blood of the legendary warriors that had helped bring the emperor’s empire into being burn indignation in her veins. Was it her fault that she wasn’t born a boy? And why did it matter that she hadn’t been? She had the same blood her father had, the same blood a son of his would have carried into battle to shed against the Mongol horseman trying to take over the region.  Why did being born a daughter with the same blood as a son make her less worthy to protect her family from those whom would threaten to take it from her?  

 

None of it made sense to Mulan. She wasn’t a coward and she would prove it. Wiping the tears from her eyes before they could fall, she pushed down the anger that had risen up inside of her and vowed to put her energy to better use later.

* * *

 

**To be continued...**


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